Poster advertising the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden

This Theatre Royal is now known as the Royal Opera House. It was built by Edward M Barry, who designed the auditorium so that it could be easily converted to a ballroom, assembly room or exhibition hall. It was the only theatre in London to not subject to the strictures of the state censor, the Lord Chamberlain. Thus it could stage a variety of different productions such as William Holland’s ‘Noah’s Ark’: a circus of performing animals that included a "Wrestling Lion", elephants, panthers, Siberian bears and a "Riding Baboon and Bare Backed Donkey".